Baby Announcement

Finally, after what seems like only yesterday, my baby is here. In fact, baby arrived exactly 2 months ago. I thought I should start by introducing my newborn.

Here was the announcement we sent out to all our family and friends.

We joyfully announce the arrival of
our little girl,
Ariel Jia Lyn Lee
on September 10, 2009 at 4pm weighing 3.4kg (7.8 lb) and measuring 49.5cm.
Mum and bub doing well. Thank you and
we can't thank you enough for keeping us in prayers.

Love,
Andrew and Sarah

Choosing a name was perhaps one of the most challenging task for us. We wanted a special name (which parents don't), easy to pronounce, straightforward and of course, a godly meaning. We actually had a list of names which we collected during the first 6 months of my pregnancy, but none which we both could agree on.

Finally, we came across, Ariel. Andrew just casually mentioned, "Ariel, a hebrew name meaning lionness of God". We almost instantly could read each others' mind when Andrew spoke of that name. It sounded perfect! As I kept repeating the name, I knew that was it. Somehow, Andrew too got addicted to calling our unborn baby, Ariel. That's how we got stuck with Ariel. During the final semester of my pregnancy, little did we realise, we had started calling our baby Ariel.

However, we had to decide on the spelling. There is a variant to that name (depending on how you pronounce it), like Arielle, but like how we wanted originally, a simple and straightforward name. Hence, Ariel was it. Another problem we encountered was the pronunciation. So far, there are 3 ways to pronounce it.

1) ah - riel

2) air - riel (like how you would pronounce adam)

3) ey - riel

Again, we find it easier and simpler to call ey - riel.

So, that's how Ariel was named.

Once christian name has been sorted, we weren't too fuss about the chinese name. In a chinese family, traditionally all girls or boys in that same generation will have the same middle name (most common) or second name (less common). Since Andrew's brother (who has 2 girls) started the tradition of using the same second name (Lyn), we thought we should follow suit.

Finally, Jia was decided which means good, auspicious, beautiful, delightful.

Below are some of Ariel's photo when she was 1 day to 1 week old.